Goldman Sachs moves from defence to attack

Goldman Sachs, which has built a reputation in France as a defender of the country's corporate interests, has taken the unusual step of backing a hostile foreign bid for a French company.

Yoel Zaoui, co-head of European investment banking, and Shahriar Tadjbakhsh, who was made a partner in Goldman's French office in 2004, have been the backbone of the US bank's defence team in Paris for the past seven years. Now the pair are leading its advisory effort for Mittal Steel, which launched an unsolicited €18.6bn ($22.4bn) bid for...